Crockpot Baby Back Ribs

In celebration of the second weekend of college football, we decided to try yet another ribs recipe and serve them with sausage, potato salad, baked beans, cauliflower with cheese sauce, and banana pudding. Don't worry, we had friends over to share in the feast - there was no way we could haven eaten that much food on our own!

I spotted this recipe on Pinterest and it caught my eye. Ribs...in a crockpot? Say, what?!?We've previously tried smoking them (great flavor but not tender enough) and oven roasting them (again, great flavor but not tender enough), so I thought, "what the heck, why not try cooking them in the Crockpot?!". It could not have been easier and I knew they were going to be tender enough when I cut them to separate the ribs and the meat just fell off the bones. Ah, heaven - meat falling off a bone! At the end of the meal, there was lots of sausage, beans, and potato salad left over but nary a rib in sight!

Crockpot Baby Back Ribs

Adapted from Free Motion Quilting

3 lb rack of pork baby back ribs

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I omitted this since kids were going to be eating with us)

Bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Stubb's)

Mix all the dry seasonings in a small bowl, being careful to break up any lumps of brown sugar. Rub seasoning all over both sides of the ribs, ensuring every surface of ribs is covered.

Place rack of ribs on edge of crockpot, meat side out. I curved the ribs into a circle, the ends touching, so that the ribs are standing upright in the crockpot.

Cook on low heat for a minimum of 7 hours or on high for 5 hours. Remove ribs to a large cutting board and baste with your favorite BBQ sauce. Let rest 15 minutes before separating the ribs. Baste one more time and then serve the ribs with extra BBQ sauce on the side.

*It's important not to lift the lid of the crockpot as they ribs cook because they are essentially steaming in their own juices.